Methods for street lighting visualization and computation in 3d interactive platform

ABSTRACT

A system and corresponding method is disclosed for monitoring and conducting large-scale performance verification of a city&#39;s lighting infrastructure. In particular, the current invention combines measurements of lighting performance measurements along city roadways with regulatory requirements for the roadways. In various embodiments, the current invention then presents a three-dimensional visualization of the 5 adequacy of existing roadway lighting with respect to these regulatory requirements.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application relates to the field of light management systems andmore particularly to a method and a system to monitoring and displayinglighting levels along public streets. In one embodiment these levels aredisplayed relative to regulatory requirements for the street(s) beinganalyzed. In various additional embodiments, the present inventionpresents the data in a various visual and interactive formats thatprovide useful tools to lighting design experts and regulatory agencies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Roadway lighting, a critical infrastructure for urban areas, hasprofound impact on numerous aspects of people's lives. Well-lit roadwaysenhance driving conditions, safety, and overall quality of life incities, which have increasingly become overpopulated and congested withtraffic. Given their immense utility, the Illuminating EngineeringSociety (IES) and the International Commission on Illumination haverecommended street-specific lighting levels based on the traffic andpedestrian usage patterns. Maintaining such an extensive infrastructureand ensuring adherence to the standards is essential to the citizens'well-being.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, city governments and street lighting providers typicallyinvest significant money annually to maintain and improve lightingconditions. A substantial amount of those costs relates to measuringcurrent lighting conditions on roadways in order to assess the actuallighting conditions and to ensure that they meet the regulatorystandards for the type of roadway being measured. With those significantexpenses and with the resulting volume of data that is involved, a needexists to automate the process and to present results in an efficientand effective manner. In particular, in various embodiments of thecurrent invention, visualization techniques are used to provide readilyrecognizable insights to lighting professionals reviewing the data.

The current invention combines measurements of lighting performancemeasurements along one or more city roadways with regulatoryrequirements for the roadways. In various embodiments, the currentinvention then presents a three-dimensional visualization of theadequacy of existing roadway lighting with respect to these regulatoryrequirements.

In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation andnot limitation, representative embodiments disclosing specific detailsare set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of theclaimed invention. However, it will be apparent to one having ordinaryskill in the art having had the benefit of the present disclosure thatother embodiments according to the present teachings that depart fromthe specific details disclosed herein remain within the scope of theappended claims. Moreover, descriptions of well-known apparatus andmethods may be omitted so as to not obscure the description of therepresentative embodiments. Such methods and apparatus are clearlywithin the scope of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other exemplary features, aspects, and advantages of thepresent invention will be more apparent from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the current invention inwhich a three dimensional (3D) visualization of street lightingconditions are displayed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the invention inwhich data collection points are depicted across the width of a roadway.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the invention inwhich compliance with lighting regulations is depicted.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the invention inwhich classifications of one or more roadways are presented.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the invention inwhich street lamp positions are indicated on the depicted map.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the invention inwhich sensor grid points that comply with lighting regulations areautomatically generated.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart depicting an exemplary method by which theinvention determines compliance with lighting standards.

It is to be understood that these drawings are solely for purposes ofillustrating the concepts of the invention and are not intended as adefinition of the limits of the invention. It will be appreciated thatthe same reference numerals, possibly supplemented with referencecharacters, where appropriate, have been used throughout to identifycorresponding parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

As noted above, the current invention relates to first attaininglighting measurements along one or more roadways. In various embodimentsof the invention, each of these measurements has at least three valuesassociated with it: two values designating the geo-location coordinates(latitude and longitude) and one value of the lighting measurement(illuminance or luminance). Various means are contemplated for obtainingthis data. Databases, where traditional manual measurements have beenattained, may be available. Some modern street lighting systems have thecapability of approximating street level measurements from the knownlocation and height of street lights and their lux levels. Thus, anadditional database may be available with this data. While these methodsare capable of being employed, they do not take into account changesthat may have occurred over time (e.g., due to mechanical failures orreduced luminance of street lights due to age or discoloration of lenscovers). Accordingly, the preferred embodiment of the present inventioncontemplates attaining lighting measurements by employing sensors on oneor more host vehicles that traverse the city streets and obtain currentlight level measurements at discreet points along the roadway andprovide these measurements to a central processing unit. Such a systemis described U.S. Pat. No. 9,113,514 entitled “Outdoor Lighting NetworkLight Change/Optimization System,” hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

By enabling large-scale lighting measurements in this manner, thecurrent invention can be used to provide cities with insights abouttheir lighting installations. That is, by analyzing theilluminance-levels incident along different roads and matching thisinformation with a database of attributes of the roads, the inventionenables verification of whether any sections of the road fail to meetlighting standards. Such standards may include the minimum level ofrequired light in view of the road's speed limit.

Once light measurements are attained, various embodiments of theinvention output a 3D visualization of distinct attributes which reflectthe true lighting conditions of the roadway (including but not limitedto illuminance, illuminance uniformity, strobing, cycling, luminosityand other unique attributes of the lighting condition). An example ofthe visualization output is shown in FIG. 1, in which a 3D model 110 ofa portion of a city is depicted. 3D modelling of cities is well known inthe art. The current invention incorporates the light measurements intothe city model and plots each measured illuminance value as an uprightline 120 in the 3D space. In particular, as identified in section 105 ofthe exemplary output, the indicated measurements were obtained alongsections of Rue Alfred de Musset.

In various embodiments of the invention, the 3D visualization depictseach data point as an upright line, wherein the length of each line canbe a fixed ratio to the lighting measurement (such as lux). That is, asshown in FIG. 1, the data point with a larger lux value will have ahigher line, a data point with a smaller lux value will have a shorterline. This method makes sure the visualization of each data point ispresented clearly to users, especially the relationship of consecutivemeasured data points. FIG. 1 also makes use of shading to aid invisually distinguishing measured light values. A legend for this shadingis provided in section 130 of the display. In further embodiments,colors associated with light heights can be utilized for this purpose.

As depicted in FIG. 1, an embodiment of the invention provides aninteractive display that permits each vertical line to be clickable tothereby retrieve the original data entry. That is, when a user clicksone line, a pop-up information box 140 is displayed that provides thedetailed information of that data point. Thus as shown in FIG. 1, theLatitude, Longitude, and the measured raw lux value are provided insection 140 of the display.

Each line represents a lux value collected at that specific location.Consequently, when the light data sampling rate is high, the distancebetween two-consecutive lines may be very close, which could cause theuser to view as a single vertical line what is in fact a group of linesclosely together. The interactive nature of the display permits the useto zoom in on the area of interest such that individual discrete linesappear permitting clicking on the individual lines and obtaining thecorresponding light data for the locations involved.

In another embodiment of this work, if there are multiple data measuredwidth-wise along a roadway, the data points can be displayed at theirmeasured locations as depicted in FIG. 2. That is, FIG. 2 shows the datapoints from a more vertical, top-down angle in which two tracks of data,collected on each side of the roadway, are shown in the output (whereitems 210 and 220 depict the left and right sides of the roadway,respectfully). It should be noted that while the slightly oblique natureof the depicted lines (e.g., item 120) permit a user to determine itsrelative height, the use of shading, and in particular, coloring of thelines enables the user to more easily discern the lighting levels of thedepicted points.

In additional embodiments of the invention, a roadway's lightingconditions are automatically checked to see whether they meet or exceeddesign compliance. A graph is then presented to indicate the detailedresults on the map interface as illustrated in FIG. 3. City officials orlighting company personnel could use these results to adjust the lightson the street, either to increase the lights to avoid any safety risks,or dim down the lights to save energy.

In various embodiments of the invention, FIG. 3 is derived using theroad's classification and the street lighting design regulation for sucha classification. In one such embodiment, a user can pre-set ranges ofaverage values of illuminance between two neighboring street lightingpoles (where points labelled L1, L2, . . . , L10 depict the light polepositions). For example, the compliance range for road 310 in FIG. 3 isset between 7.25 lux and 12.25 lux. The current invention can calculatethe average illuminance using all of the data collected between everytwo consecutive lighting poles, and compare this average illuminancevalue to the compliance range. Then shading (or coloring) can then beemployed to indicate if each block between two poles meets thecompliance. By way of example, legend 320 depicts three types ofshading: indicating that the measured lighting is below, meets, orexceeds compliance (items 326, 324 and 322, respectively).

Additional embodiments of the invention employ automatically determininga roadway's classification and presenting this information in a displayas exemplified by FIG. 4. In particular, the invention imports a filewhich either contains a list of road names or a list of coordinatesassociated with each road, and then automatically retrieves the detailedinformation of each road from online open sources. The retrievedinformation may include, but not limited to, road names, road type (suchas highway, residential, etc.), the shape and detailed locations of theroad. In one embodiment of the invention, a 3D map 410 is then generatedwhich uses different types of color or shading (as depicted in legend420) to annotate the roads on the map. Typically, each type of road hasits corresponding light design requirements. In those situations, aroad's classification can then be used to verify that the lightingconditions on that specific road meet its design requirements.

As noted above, various embodiments of the invention (e.g., FIG. 3)display measured lighting levels relative to the location of light polespresent along the roadway. Additional embodiments of the inventionemploy automatically importing lighting pole location information andpresenting this information in a display as exemplified by FIG. 5. Inparticular, the invention imports one or more files which contain a listof the coordinates of lighting poles. As illustrated in FIG. 5, theinvention can then analyze and plot these pole positions (L1-L7,L172-L177) on the depicted map 510. Although not illustrated, it iscontemplated that the displayed map could provide overlays of streetnames (as illustrated in FIG. 4). These features permit users to quicklyand clearly get the knowledge of the distribution of the lightingassets, thereby assisting lighting designers to better plan the lightingresources.

In determining the required lighting levels, various regulatory agenciesimpose specific requirements on the number and placement of sensorsrelative to the street lights. The resulting sensor measurements arethen averaged to obtain a light measurement value that is appliedagainst the applicable standard. By way of example, in the UnitedKingdom 15 measurement points are required (per TR-28 regulations). SomeEuropean countries require a minimum of 30 measurement points (per EN13201).

Additional embodiments of the invention determine where on the roadwaythe spots where required measurements need to be obtained. FIG. 6 is anexemplary display output 610 which is generated by such an embodiment.It depicts 30 measuring points or spots 615 (between each pair ofneighboring street lights (L1-L10). As illustrated in FIG. 6, pointslabelled VA_(i) and VB_(i) are used to mark the road width at thecorresponding light location (L_(i)). In various embodiments, theinvention can automatically generate the required grid points, andprovide the coordinates of each point for further usage. In the displaydepicted in FIG. 6, the determined averages are displayed (e.g., “58.44Lux”). Further, as depicted in the display, each section of the roadbetween neighboring pairs of street lights is shaded (or colored) as towhether or not its determined average satisfies the applicable standard.In the example illustrated FIG. 6, all three depicted road sectionexceed the regulatory compliance level.

The above described automatic compliance check procedure will now bedescribed with respect to the flowchart provided in FIG. 7. As depictedat step 710, the system continuously collects street lighting data. Foreach monitored street segment, a decision is made as to the sufficiencyof the data (step 720). If the data is insufficient, the area is marked“unfinished,” and the collecting entity is so notified. One possibly wayof doing so is by employing a real-time map interface which can markwhich area needs more data. As a result, additional data is attained andonce sufficient, the area is marked “finished” (step 730).

As discussed above, in addition to Lux levels each data point hasdetermined Latitude and Longitude values. At step 740, the correctstreet's name and basic info (city, state, country) can be identifiedbased on the raw GPS data, (e.g., using Google Maps RoadsAPI-Snap-to-Road feature which provides a function of returning thebest-fit road geometry for a given set of GPS coordinates (as describedat https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/roads/intro)). Withthe street name and information obtained from step 740, more detailedstreet information can be obtained at step 750 by querying externalonline map providers or databases, such as OpenStreetMap(https://www.openstreetmap.org/), Google Maps, Microsoft Bing Maps, etc.This data may include information such as road type, width, bicyclefriendly, condition, one way, sidewalk, lanes, etc. This obtained data,(e.g., the type of road (highway, residential, secondary, service, etc.)is then used at step 760 to retrieve the applicable light designcompliance requirements. Typically a country or a city has a compliancestandards and/or regulations defining the street lighting designrequirements for each type of street. This information is publicallyavailable. These regulations typically include the minimum illuminationon the street, the average illumination, how many points to be measuredbetween two lighting poles, and where to place the measuring points.With the road type retrieved from step 750, the lighting designcompliance can be determined.

At this point in the depicted method, the system has two sets of dataavailable: (1) the illumination data collected on street and (2) thecompliance data. After calculating the minimum values and average valuesfrom (1) and comparing with the compliance data (2), the system canreport whether or not each segment between every two lighting polesmeets the compliance standard (step 790).

In various embodiments, the system could simply use all of the datapoints collected between two poles to calculate the average illuminancefor that segment. To meet compliance standards in most jurisdictions,additional calculations are required as depicted in 770-780; wherein thesystem would first generate sampling grids (e.g., points 615 as depictedin FIG. 6). As described above, the latitude and longitude of each gridpoint are known. At step 780 the system would use a weighted averageformula to calculate an illuminance value for each grid point, where theweight is decided by the distance between the grid point and the actuallocation at which the light data was collected. That is by way ofexample, the collected data point that is closer to the grid point has ahigher weight, the data point farther away from the grid point has alower weight, and if the data point is more than a certain distance away(e.g., 2 meters), then this data point will be ignored for that gridpoint's evaluation.

With this method, the illuminance value of each grid point can beestimated based on its surrounding illuminance. Then according to thecompliance standards, the minimum and average illuminance of this roadsegment can be calculated based on the determined illuminance of thegrid points. The road segment's compliance with lighting requirementsare then determined from these average and minimum calculations. Thatis, compliance defines two type of values that must be meet:

1. The average Lux value of the whole segment area, which is calculatedby using all of the grid points in that area. If the average value isless than certain value as defined in the compliance requirements, thenthe segment fails to comply.2. The minimum Lux value of all of the grid points in the segment area.If the lowest grid point is less than certain value as defined in thecompliance requirements, then the segment fails to comply.

Although not illustrated in the figures to avoid unnecessarilycluttering the drawings, various interactive functions that arewell-known in the map display art are contemplated by the invention.Such functions, include but are not limited to various navigationbuttons and arrows, zoom in/zoom out functions, drop-down menus, helpbuttons, etc. Thus, by way of example, such functions enable a userviewing the display depicted in FIG. 5 to simply scroll to the right toget information about additional light pole positions not currentlyillustrated.

While several inventive embodiments have been described and illustratedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision avariety of other means and/or structures for performing the functionand/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantagesdescribed herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications isdeemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments describedherein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations describedherein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters,dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon thespecific application or applications for which the inventive teachingsis/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is,therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presentedby way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claimsand equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventiveembodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individualfeature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein.In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent,is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

The principles of the present invention are implemented as anycombination of hardware, firmware and software. Moreover, the softwareis preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied ona program storage unit or computer readable storage medium consisting ofparts, or of certain devices and/or a combination of devices. Theapplication program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machinecomprising any suitable architecture. The computer platform may alsoinclude an operating system and microinstruction code. The variousprocesses and functions described herein may be either part of themicroinstruction code or part of the application program, or anycombination thereof, which may be executed by a CPU, whether or not suchcomputer or processor is explicitly shown. In addition, various otherperipheral units may be connected to the computer platform such as anadditional data storage unit and a printing unit.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should beunderstood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. Forexample, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall beinterpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, butalso including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and,optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated tothe contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when usedin the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactlyone element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or”as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusivealternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded byterms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or“exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims,shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

It should also be understood that, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, in any methods claimed herein that include more than one stepor act, the order of the steps or acts of the method is not necessarilylimited to the order in which the steps or acts of the method arerecited.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual ofPatent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.

1. A method of managing compliance with lighting requirements for one ormore sections of a roadway surface, wherein the one or more sectionsincludes one or more lights, the method comprising: collecting lightmeasurement data and corresponding GPS determined locations associatedwith each collected light measurement; creating a display depicting oneor more sections of the roadway; determining for a given section of theroadway its classification; obtaining the regulatory lighting luxstandard for such a classification; determining each sections' level ofcompliance with regulatory lighting requirements; and visually depictingon the display the level of compliance for one or more sections of theroadway.
 2. The method of claim 1, further including the step ofadjusting the one or more lights based on the level of compliance in arespective section.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said visuallydepicting step comprises shading or color coding to indicate the one ormore sections' level of compliance.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein thedisplay is a three dimensional (3D) display and said visually depictingstep comprises superimposing onto the 3D display an indication of atleast some of the luminance values, wherein the magnitude of at leastsome of said luminance values are indicated by vertical lines.
 5. Themethod of claim 4 wherein the 3D display indicates by line style orcolor of the vertical lines associated with one or more sections of theroadway, the level of compliance of each depicted section.
 6. The methodof claim 1 further comprising: determining positions of light polesalong the given section of the roadway and indicating these positions onthe display; and, indicating on the display test points relative to thelight pole positions, which test points being required by the regulatoryrequirements.
 7. The method of claim 6 further comprising: determiningan estimated light luminance value at each test point by performing aweighting function on at least one location's light measurement data,the weighting being based on the location's proximity to the test point.8. The method of claim 7 further comprising: depicting on the display,an average lux reading using estimated light luminance values determinedfor a section of the roadway; and, providing an indication on thedisplay whether the section of the roadway meets the lighting luxstandard, based upon the average lux reading.
 9. The method of claim 7further comprising: depicting on the display, a minimum lux reading forestimated light luminance values determined for a section of theroadway; and, providing an indication on the display whether the sectionof the roadway meets the lighting lux standard, based upon the minimumlux reading.
 10. A system for of managing light luminance valuesmeasured at locations along one or more sections of the roadway surface,wherein the one or more sections includes one or more lights, the systemcomprising a central processor; a mobile device equipped with GPSfunctionality for obtaining light luminance values along one or moresections of a roadway and the locations at which those values wereobtained; a communication system operably connecting the centralprocessor and the mobile device; a database including the classificationof the one or more sections of the roadway and the regulatory lightinglux standard for each roadway classification; a display device fordepicting a display of one or more sections of the roadway; and, whereinthe central processor determines each sections level of compliance withregulatory lighting requirements and causes the display to visuallyillustrate the level of compliance for one or more sections of theroadway.
 11. The system of claim 10 further comprising: the centralprocessor determines positions of light poles along the given section ofthe roadway and indicates on the display, test points relative to thelight pole positions, which test points being required by the regulatoryrequirements.
 12. The system of claim 11 further comprising: the centralprocessor determines an estimated light luminance value at each testpoint by performing a weighting function on at least one location'slight measurement data, based on the location's proximity to the testpoint; and, wherein the estimated light luminance values are used indetermining compliance with regulatory requirements.
 13. The system ofclaim 12 further comprising: the display depicts an average lux readingusing estimated light luminance values determined for a section of theroadway; and, the display provides an indication on the display whetherthe section of the roadway meets the lighting lux standard, based uponthe average lux reading.
 14. The system of claim 12 further comprising:the display depicts a minimum lux reading for estimated light luminancevalues determined for a section of the roadway; and, the displayprovides an indication on the display whether the section of the roadwaymeets the lighting lux standard, based upon the minimum lux reading. 15.A computer program product comprising a plurality of program codeportions, stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium, forcarrying out the method according to claim 1.